It also means we're about to learn something very important about traffic on Staten Island.

It's been a bit of a downer weatherwise, as the remnants of Hurricane Harvey made their way through the region, raining out a big chunk of our holiday weekend. (The Mets' Matt Harvey should pack such a punch next season. And have such staying power. But I digress.)

If you drive on the Staten Island Expressway in the direction of New Jersey, you may have noticed that traffic seems to have been worse this summer. It's been bumper-to-bumper earlier and earlier in the day on Friday. And sometimes earlier in the week than that.

Used to be that weekend traffic headed toward New Jersey would start to pick up on Friday just before the evening rush hour. Like three or four o'clock in the afternoon.

But this summer, we've noticed traffic getting worse and worse earlier and earlier in the day. Get on the expressway at eleven in the morning or noon and you can find yourself stuck in traffic heading toward the Goethals Bridge.

More recently, it seemed to be even worse. We were on the expressway at about 1 p.m. on Thursday and were stuck in bumper-to-bumper congestion.

It's getting to the point where if you're leaving for vacation on a Friday or a Saturday, either leave at six in the morning or, better yet, get a hotel on Thursday near your destination and drive up early.

There were half-hour delays on the expressway headed to the Goethals Bridge on Friday.

I've tried to explain it all away. It's Labor Day weekend. Most forecasts called for rain Saturday and Sunday. So folks who wanted to get away to the Jersey Shore probably took off from work on Thursday and well as Friday in order to get a little a little bit of sun. So that can account for some of the additional traffic.

And there could be other reasons. We have the new Goethals Bridge. There's still work being done in connection with the bridge on the New Jersey side. You know the spot: Right when you come off the New Jersey Turnpike and have to maneuver into the cattle chute in order to get onto the bridge.

So maybe there are seasonal reasons for traffic. If so, those reasons shouldn't be valid for much longer. You won't have beach traffic any more. You won't have as many day trippers headed to the Jersey Shore. Traffic patterns should return to normal.

But if they don't, then you'll know that something is up. You'll know that things have changed. And, yes, the end of summer means the beginning of school. So we're going to have more vehicles on our roads no matter what.

There was a time when the reconstruction of the Staten Island Expressway seemed to have solved some of that road's notorious traffic problems. No longer was there traffic at all times of the day and night. No longer did people come home from long roadtrips and find traffic only when they hit the Staten Island Expressway.

But now it seems we're getting that traffic back again. At least when we're driving toward New Jersey. And we're getting jammed up on the other side of the New Jersey bridges as well. The traffic is getting worse and worse on Sunday nights, when people are trying to come back from the shore. It's particularly bad at the Outerbridge Crossing, but people have also reported that the Turnpike lanes leading to the Goethals Bridge exit have also been more difficult than normal lately.

Again, maybe it's all seasonal. Maybe things will get back to normal and things won't be so inexplicably aggravating. Summer is over. We'll know soon enough.